Minority (Jobs) Report

It looks like whether you get hired or not in the future will depend on whether an automated bot thinks you're qualified. After that, it's on to the automated computer simulation (following the drug test, natch, which I assume is already automated):

It is just one of a new breed of software that reflects the growing impact of the digital age on the recruitment sector.

Another programme, created by talent management firm SHL, features online 3D simulations, which drop graduate applicants into scenarios where a boss with a piercing stare asks for solutions to various dilemmas.

Other software is positively Spartan in the opportunity it gives applicants to shine. 

EnRecruit, a video-based interview product, offers potential staff just three questions via an online webcam, which a recruiter can use to make quick decisions about whom to actually meet.

Human contact, it seems, will be one of the first casualties of a new digital recruitment age.

"Face-to-face interviews, because they are time-consuming and costly for both parties, will increasingly be reserved for the very final stages of hiring," says Gordon Whyte, a recruitment consultant at BIE Group

Firms are already using 'applicant tracking systems', which analyse CVs using key-word recognition.

"Nobody reads through 500 CVs anymore - it's all automated," says Whyte.

Need a job? Learn to impress the robots (BBC)

What could go wrong?:

Here’s a science-fiction script for you. In a world rampant with digital piracy, armies of copyright bots work around the clock, patrolling the Web for unauthorized images and video clips. When they find one, they terminate it with extreme prejudice, thus keeping the Web safe for capitalism. But when they zap the wrong clip and humans try to intervene, the robots go rogue, rising up against their flesh-and-blood masters in zealous defense of digital rights.

That's pretty much what happened Sunday night during a webcast of—what else?—a science-fiction awards ceremony. As io9 reports, noted English sci-fi author Neil Gaiman was on stage at the Hugo Awards to accept an honor for a Doctor Who script when Ustream’s live feed cut out. On the computer screens of sci-fi geeks the world over, Gaiman’s face was replaced with the words, “Worldcon banned due to copyright infringement.” The culprit: an automated copyright enforcement system that pounced on the short Doctor Who clips that accompanied Gaiman’s appearance.

Sci-fi fans’ disbelief turned to outrage when the event’s organizers announced via Twitter that Ustream would not resume the broadcast. Ustream, it turned out, was powerless to override the verdict of its own bots, according to an apologetic blog post by founder and CEO Brad Hunstable. He explained that the system was set up to let copyright infringments slide only when the broadcaster notifies Ustream in advance that it has permission from the rights-holder to use the material. In this case, that didn’t happen, even though Worldcon apparently did have said rights—and even though, as i09’s Annalee Newitz points out, its use of the Doctor Who clips was almost surely legal anyway under fair-use provisions of U.S. copyright law.

Sci-Fi Awards Webcast Shut Down by Rogue Copyright Bots That Refuse To Obey Human Commands (Slate)

What an exciting world we're heading into!